University Assembly Transportation Advisory Committee

Transportation Advisory Committee Meeting
Friday, January 23, 2009
12:15 - 1:30 p.m.
316 Day Hall
MINUTES

Present: Marin Clarkberg, Melissa Hardstone, Marisa LaFalce, Lois Levitan, John Ludders, Arnim Meyburg, David Proctor Present (ex-officio): Judy Eckard, Tanya Husick, David Lieb, Helen Steh, Ed Strong Also present: Inda Mahler Excused:Jim Gibbs

M. LaFalce welcomed the group back from winter break. She noted that the December meeting was cancelled due to lack of attendance. The minutes from the November meeting were reviewed and approved.

Transportation Impact Mitigation Strategies (TIMS)

D. Lieb gave a brief summary of t-GEIS and the Transportation Impact Mitigation Strategies (TIMS). TIMS are an outcome of t-GEIS. It has taken a look at the University’s possible growth scenarios over the next 10 - 20 years and then guesses at the impact of the growth. Transportation knew that their present TDM programs were not going to move more people out of single occupant vehicles (SOVs). So mitigations needed to be developed, see Chapter 5. The TIMS was called from that and will become Transportation’s strategic plan over the next 10 years. The t-GEIS project’s lead agency is the Town of Ithaca and has approved the t-GEIS. We will share TIMS with them but it doesn’t require their approval.

L. Levitan said her main reaction to the document is that the growth scenarios are too conservative. She would like to see a stronger vision of alternative behavior. She felt that David Lieb spoke with a stronger vision than the document seems to suggest.

She asked how many people live within 1 - 5 miles. L. Levitan noted that Transportation should get approximate numbers so that we (TAC) can get a sense of how many could change behavior. D. Lieb said that Transportation was careful not be overstating the projections. M. Clarkberg noted that the document was silent on where people live. She asked if these are strategies to encourage new people to live close.

T. Husick, Transportation Planner said that the University is looking at incentives for people to live closer. She said that she hasn’t been involved with that group (the Residential Initiative group) so she can’t give details. J. Eckard said Transportation has a map that shows where people live. T. Husick commented that you can look where people live, and you can aim for percentages but there are individual differences that would make you miss your goal.

D. Lieb said that we are working with TCAT to establish Park and Rides and express bus service. It is dependent on federal/state money. Transportation will have a set of programs to offer people including being flexible. T. Husick said there is money in the 10-year Cornell/Community initiatives to help establish Park and Rides and bus service.

M. LaFalce said that TCAT is mentioned a lot and there are some high population areas that do not have bus service. She asked, How do they get involved with this? D. Lieb said the current TCAT route and service study will address some of this. TCAT is actively working on it. The public outreach part of it will be starting soon. D. Proctor commented on the issue of Park and Rides. He said TCAT has always had poor documentation on them and signage is nonexistent.

M. Clarkberg noted difficulties for pedestrians crossing State Street from the Columbia Street bridge. T. Husick said there is a pedestrian bridge project that is being funded this year. She said she will make sure to take a look at that.

L. Levitan said when reading through this she found in areas it was very general and then very specific. Planners need to be attuned to these issues when new projects come up. Include protocols so that Transportation is more directly involved at the point it hits the planning committee. Include the protocols much more explicitly for future needs. Layout a strategy for cooperation. T. Husick said that it is not an easy thing to lay out the protocols because the relationships are very complex. L. Levitan said she suggests Transportation relook at how it can make the document more specific.

D. Lieb said that President Skorton made this $10M commitment. We used the Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council (I-TCTC) to help develop a prioritized list to leverage the funds. T. Husick said the projects actually come out of the jurisdictions themselves, but will collaborate with Cornell on them. D. Lieb noted that a lot of these projects are a mix of federal, state and local funds.

T. Husick said that the projects from the 10-year investment initiative include the following in the first year:

Vanpool Ithaca Carshare Pine Tree Road Pedestrian Improvements Dryden Trail Phase I Upstream Forest Home Bridge

D. Proctor noted that Section 7 addresses those issues. D. Lieb said there are plans for an East Hill Village which includes graduate and employee housing. A portion of faculty and staff want to live at a distance to campus and others who need to because of the cost of housing. D. Proctor, from a grad student prospective, said that is something the University should follow through on. J. Eckard mentioned that there is a 10-year housing initiative similar to the 10-year transportation initiative.

T. Husick said the Campus Planning Department is working not only in the East Hill Plaza area but also improving housing in Collegetown. E. Strong said he is on the Collegetown Visioning Committee which is developing housing plans and maybe Transportation should be looked at the plans. The city of Ithaca website has the Collegetown Vision Statement.

D. Lieb said the State Street intersection should be moved to the pedestrian/bicyclist section.

J. Ludders asked what we are thinking about doing to increase the TDM participation. D. Lieb said the new programs are Vanpool, Carshare, and giving people flexibility. He noted that Transportation is working on this right now. E. Strong asked if Transportation has considered limiting people’s parking options who live within 5 miles of campus because they have so many options. J. Ludders commented that voluntary participation is what Transportation has been doing. Maybe we need to be more coercive. D. Lieb said we have to respect phases and changes in people’s lives which pose limitations. We do rely on pricing as a deterrent.

L. Levitan said that until the Route #10 bus went into effect the people in the 1 - 3 mile ranges fell between the cracks. D. Lieb said we can advocate biking and walking and making those easier. But we really can’t legislate it. We have to be sensitive to days and times people work/study.

M. LaFalce asked where do we go from here? She asked the committee if they need more time with the TIMS. M. Clarkberg said she didn’t think they need to spend more time on it. D. Proctor said he would like to see a lot of projects and what Transportation is thinking about. T. Husick noted that there are site design guidelines that we followed for on-campus projects. M. LaFalce said we should consider meeting with the Campus Planning Committee or maybe send a representative to one of their meetings. We should also meet with TCAT.

This meeting was adjourned at 1:30 P.M..